Melbourne to Sydney is the fifth busiest flight route in the world, according to OAG, a global travel data provider
The flight path clocked more than 9.2 million seats in 2024 and remained in the same spot on the domestic flight rankings as in 2023. Compared to 2019, it has dropped a ranking and the number of seats has dropped by 7%.
As the dominant airline in Australia, Qantas (ASX: QAN) was the biggest beneficiary of this activity.
The busiest domestic flight route was Jeju to Seoul with 14.2 million seats, equivalent to around 39,000 daily seats. The number of seats has grown 3% since 2023 but dropped 19% since 2019.
As for international flights, the busiest route was Hong Kong (HKG) to Taipei (TPE), with 6.8 million seats.
This route is part of a trend where all Asia Pacific routes have seen significant growth in 2024 as the region continues the post-pandemic recovery. The route has grown by 48% since last year but remains 15% lower than levels seen in 2019.
The majority of the 10 busiest international routes are in Asia and all of them have seen growth since 2019.
“With the ASPAC region very close to a full recovery, the busiest routes are concentrated in the familiar major hubs of Hong Kong, Seoul Incheon and Singapore, although the composition of the supply on those routes is changing as the low-cost sector continues its growth at a faster rate than legacy,” OAG chief analyst John Grant said.
For Australian routes, Sydney to Auckland is the busiest international route in Australia, with 1.6 million seats.
Grant said he expected global travel to remain at similar levels in 2025 to this year.
“The demand for air travel will generally remain strong, and the pre-pandemic normal travel patterns will resume,” Grant said.
“Corporate travel demand will gradually recover, compensating for any loss driven by the ‘revenge spend’ travellers.
“Therefore, we expect global load factors in 2025 to broadly remain at similar levels to 2024.”
Qantas shares closed at a record high $9.22 on Wednesday, just one day after the airline agreed to pay illegally fired baggage handlers a total of $120 million in compensation.